It's mostly plain ridiculous, but on the "right" side of ridiculous. We are introduced to Rimmer's light bee, and the crew split off into pairs - conveniently the same pairing that worked for Backwards. And it's easy to see why it'll work in this case - Rimmer is the driving force behind the military push, and Kryten is the only character that would put up with it (Lister would do everything he could to stop Rimmer, or just ridicule him, and Cat wouldn't care and just lounge around in the corner) - obviously leaving Lister and the Cat.

It is great fun to see the historical figures getting blown up, but the icing on the cake is just how Rimmer secures peace - by ensuring both armies are wiped out, which constitutes a "victory" for him, and totally in character.

And, of course, the gruesome execution of Winnie The Pooh. Just the delivery and incredulousness of "it's Winnie The Pooh!" as Lister looks through the cell window. And the visual gags of Lister and Cat appearing in the fireplace (which of course gave rise to one of my favourite smeg-ups, "they were gonna sort that out in the dub!"), and Caesar and Rasputin appearing in the cupboard ("Rasputin, I am very cross indeed!").

EDIT - and the bongos! How could I forget the bongos? What the smeg were they doing there? Rimmer ordering Gandhi to "get down and give me fifty, NOOOOWWWWW!!". Father Christmas ("he was posted here from the fictional department"). The random shots of monsters destroying stuff (I suspect the BBC model department couldn't cook anything up, but the use of footage that was so obviously from something else just made it brilliant).

Meltdown, I think, is an episode that does use wacky humour, which I hate on Red Dwarf, but somehow uses it the right way. It's never annoying. It doesn't have time to be annoying because there's so much of it, and the crew (well, Rimmer and Kryten) handle it seriously. Unlike stuff like the Medi-Bot and vending machines and Pete which just became annoying very quickly.

Oh, and how could I forget, "the name's Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln." (cue bongos)

An under-rated and unfairly maligned episode IMO. I never realised it was supposed to be unpopular until I started posting on here. The scene with the Japanese monsters looks very out of place visually but the one where Lister describes the execution of Winnie the Pooh is one of my favourite moments in Red Dwarf, with him refusing the blindfold and Lister's expression after the gunshots.

I thought the opening scene with Rimmer's Risk story was great and there were some fun guest characters once they get to the planet too. The light bee was an interesting introduction and obviously more practical than the projection cage from series II, although it's quite inconsistent with Rimmer's ability to disappear into or move through solid objects previously. Maybe another bit of experimental technology that just didn't get a mention up until now.

I do wonder why they don't make more use of the matter paddle though, they've got this amazing piece of equipment and apart from at the start of Demons and Angels it's never even mentioned again.

Edit: Given that it could apparently home in on atmosphere bearing planets within a 500,000 light year range, Earth could have been as little as 3 jumps away, unless for some reason not mentioned in the episode it can't go further than that from the point of origin.

It does make me think though that if the episodes had been screened in their original order Justice would have made less sense, if they had this device they could have just beamed themselves and the pod anywhere within a pretty massive radius and waited for it to open from a safe distance.

An under-rated and unfairly maligned episode IMO. I never realised it was supposed to be unpopular until I started posting on here. The scene with the Japanese monsters looks very out of place visually but the one where Lister describes the execution of Winnie the Pooh is one of my favourite moments in Red Dwarf, with him refusing the blindfold and Lister's expression after the gunshots.

I thought the opening scene with Rimmer's Risk story was great and there were some really fun guest characters once they get to the planet too. The light bee was an interesting introduction and obviously more practical than the projection cage from series II, although it's quite inconsistent with Rimmer's ability to disappear into solid objects. Maybe another bit of experimental technology that just didn't get a mention up until now.

I do wonder why they don't make more use of the matter paddle though, they've got this amazing piece of equipment and apart from at the start of Demons and Angels it's never even mentioned again.

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Actually they use it again to make the triplicator . But I know what you mean. Considering the distance Holly mentions it covers (this is a long range teleporter not like the transporters in Star Trek. Original continuity.:P ) they should have reached the location of Earth in a very short period of time.

they've got this amazing piece of equipment and apart from at the start of Demons and Angels it's never even mentioned again.

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Actually they use it again to make the triplicator .

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I know, that's the bit I was referring to.

Considering the distance Holly mentions it covers (this is a long range teleporter not like the transporters in Star Trek. Original continuity.Razz ) they should have reached the location of Earth in a very short period of time.

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Given that it could apparently home in on atmosphere bearing planets within a 500,000 light year range, Earth could have been as little as 3 jumps away, unless for some reason not mentioned in the episode it can't go further than that from the point of origin.

A great episode with a wonderful performance by Chris. I always loved how he could create so many different personalities for the same character. My favourite bit is one I never hear mentioned, the way he screams "Kryten" when Kryten and Lister are talking before the battle.

The ending I always thought a shame. Considering the fact that the episode was called "Meltdown" which means going crazy as well as the sad faith of the wax droids I thought it would have been better if they'd ended with all of them back on the ship and Rimmer realising what actually happened after his lightbee was fixed (why mention the damage if you don't use it then have Lister swallowing it again which will surely only damage it more?)

Also, Lister could have just ordered Kryten to switch Rimmer off and fix him before final battle ...

IMO Meltdown was the worst Red Dwarf episode until Emohawk and the second worst they made before Rob Grant's departure. There are some really weak jokes, some of the show's most annoying preformances (Laural, and sadly even from Chris Barrie himself) and the hypocrisy of Lister's anti-war speach because it his fault for messing with Rimmer's brain by sucking on his light bee....yet there episode seems oddly clueless to that fact......All round just a really weak episode, and a sour note to end an otherwise strong fourth series.